Join Denver Anarchist Black Cross for our monthly letter writing night to U.S. held political prisoners and prisoners of (liberatory) war. For August, we will be focusing on Black Liberation prisoners, in honor of Black August.

Black August is an annual commemoration and time of fasting, remembrance, reflection, and celebration of black and New Afrikan resistance in North America.

As always, Denver ABC will provide everything you need to write our comrades being held in prisons across the U.S. We will provide, pens, paper, envelopes, prisoner addresses, and stamps, as well as an informative powerpoint presentation on the cases of these comrades, as well as DINNER! All we need is you!

This major escalation of a 3 year long campaign by prisoners across the state to highlight the injustices and torturous conditions of solitary confinement and inhumane captivity represents what could become a high water mark in the modern prisoner movement.

The question that we, as outside supporters of this hunger strike now face is: Will we step up to ensure that these prisoners win this struggle, or will we watch and allow our comrades to struggle on their own?

In Denver, we will be hosting an event that intends to draw the connection between the present day prisoner movement(s) and the liberatory social movements of the CoIntelPro (1960’s-1980’s) era. We will be screening a
documentary of “Eyes on the Rainbow”, a film about Assata Shakur, a comrade who broke out of prison in 1979, and has been hunted by the U.S. Government ever since.

Come join us on Saturday to show solidarity with our comrade Assata and the 30,000 (or more!) prisoners on hunger strike now in California (and Palestine, Ohio, and elsewhere).

That time of the year is fast approaching. On September 1st, Denver ABC will host our fifth annual solidarity Running Down the Walls 5k benefit for U.S. held political prisoners. We need your support to make this critical fundraiser a success yet again!

Over the last several years, RDTW has raised thousands of dollars for U.S. held political prisoners. This annual event funds our monthly stipend programs, as well as our annual North American Anarchist Black Cross conference. To run, walk, bike, volunteer, or donate, please contact us at denverabc@riseup.net

This year, in solidarity with June 11th events across the world, the Denver Anarchist Black Cross will be hosting an evening event with scott crow, a long term anarchist community organizer from Austin Texas. (More on Scott below).

Dinner will be provided, as well as various educational materials. We’re also going to be encouraging some participatory after events, so, if possible, come prepared for a late night!

PLEASE NOTE! WHILE THIS EVENT IS IN SOLIDARITY WITH JUNE 11TH EVENTS, IT IS TAKING PLACE ON SATURDAY JUNE 8TH!!!!

—
scott crow is a community organizer, writer, strategist and speaker who advocates the philosophy and practices of anarchism for social, environmental, and economic aims.

He is the only son of a working class mother who started his political journey in the anti-apartheid, political prisoner and animals rights movements during the Reagan years. In the late 80s he fronted two political electronic industrial bands and through the 90s ran a successful antique/art cooperative business.

For over two decades he has continued to use his experience and ideas in co-founding and co-organizing numerous radical grassroots projects in Texas, including Treasure City Thrift, Radical Encuentro Camp, UPROAR (United People Resisting Oppression and Racism), Dirty South Earth First! and the Common Ground Collective, the largest anarchist influenced organization in modern U.S. history to date.

In addition to grassroots organizing, he has worked for regional and national organizations, including Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network, Ruckus Society and A.C.O.R.N. With his partner, he produced the documentary film Angola 3: Black Panthers and the Last Slave Plantation. These political activities lead to him being labeled a “domestic terrorist”by the FBI beginning in the late 90’s with investigations that continued for almost a decade.

He has appeared in various media outlets including the New York Times, CNN, Democracy Now!, Texas Observer, Infoshop, Left Turn, Anarchist News, Z Magazine, Austin Chronicle, Austin American-Statesman, Pacifica Radio and AlterNet as well as the documentaries Welcome To New Orleans, Better this World, and Informant. Public Radio’s This American Life called him “a living legend among anarchists” and the New York Times characterized him as “anarchist and veteran organizer… that comes across as more amiable than combative…”.

His writings have appeared in the anthology What Lies Beneath: Katrina, Race, and the State of the Nation ( 2006 South End Press), his book Black Flags and Windmills: Hope, Anarchy and the Common Ground Collective (2011 Pm Press) as well as various radical print magazines and online sites over the last decade.

From his home in Austin scott recently worked at Ecology Action an anarchist worker-run recycling center cooperative, consults in building worker cooperatives, travels for speaking, and organizes projects. In his spare time, he and his partner bike around town, raise a barnyard of funny animals and dream of sustainable futures.

On May 2, the Trenton NJ off ice of the FBI and the New Jersey State Police held a press conference to announce the continuation of war against Black Liberation and imprisoned or liberated political prisoners.

At the press conference, the FBI announced a one million dollar reward for the capture of Black Freedom Fighter, Assata Shakur. The New Jersey State Police already have a one million dollar reward for the capture of Shakur, whose slave name is JoAnn Chesimard. The FBI also placed Assata on the 10 Most Wanted Terrorist list. According to research reports, In May 1973 Shakur was involved in an incident on the New Jersey Turnpike, during which New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster and Black Liberation Army member Zayd Malik Shakur were killed and Assata was injured. Between 1973 and 1977, Shakur was indicted in relation to six other alleged criminal incidents—charged with murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, bank robbery, and kidnapping—resulting in three acquittals and three dismissals. In 1977, she was framed up for the death of Forrester. She was imprisoned in New Jersey, along with fellow freedom fighter, Sundiata Acoli, who also was involved in the New Jersey Turnpike incident in 1973.

With the help of the Revolutionary Armed Task Force, Assata was liberated from prison in 1979 and has been living in Cuba in political asylum since 1984.

At the core of the Anarchist Black Cross movement is work to support and defend political prisoners from the legal lynching they receive at the hands of the USA judicial system. The imprisonment of Assata, Sundiata and all other political prisoners from the Black Liberation Movements, is result of the FBI’s COINTELPRO program. Civil rights organizations such as the Operation PUSH, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the NAACP, and other more militant Black groups were the victims of FBI infiltration of their organizations, spying against members of their organization, and organizing the murders of their members. One important FBI inspired murder was the killing of Black Panther Chairman, Fred Hampton, in Chicago. The FBI’s designation of Assata as a domestic terrorist is ironic, as US government documents prove that the FBI and other government have committed bloody war against the progressive and revolutionary movements. It is ironic that the FBI chose Aaron Ford, an African American who is the Special Agent for New Jersey, to make the May 2, 2013 announcement. Ford, an African American spoke with the echo of long deceased FBI leader, J. Edgar Hoover, who considered the Black Panther Party the greatest threat to the internal security of the United States.

The danger in this situation is not from Assata. The danger is from the FBI and the national security state. When the FBI comes on national television and declares the Black Panther Party, the Black Liberation Army and all who fight for freedom and liberation from the centuries of oppression of the US government, when the FBI makes such announcements, their words of oppression must receive determined calls for Freedom Now! By Any Means Necessary!, as in the words of Malcolm X.

The Anarchist Black Cross movement distinguishes itself by its unswerving support for political prisoners from the Black freedom movement, from the Native People’s movement, the Environmental Justice movement, the movement against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and the Chicano Mexicano movements. We organize letter writing campaigns to support our locked down sisters and brothers. We do not forget those who are imprisoned because of their work for a world free of national, gender, class and caste oppression.

Because of our stance as an organization who supports those who the FBI now has characterized as domestic terrorists, we must clarify this matter. Assata Shakur, Sundiata Acoil, Zayd Shakur, and all who have fought and who will fight and stand for their freedom, these peoples are not terrorists. They are freedom fighters and must be recognized as such.

Denver ABC calls upon all supporters of human rights, justice, and social liberation to call for the removal of Assata Shakur from the Most Wanted Terrorist list. Denver ABC calls upon all freedom loving people of the world to demonstrate, to organize, and to fight back against this government-led offensive against the Assata Shakur, the Black Liberation Movement and all who fight and struggle for freedom.

On the night of Thursday, April 25th, as several dozen people were present inside the 27 Social Centre, heavily armed members of the Denver Police Department took up tactical positions outside of the Centre in preparations to raid the building.

People had gathered at 27 for a variety of activities, including a presentation on Tar Sands Resistance in Utah and several small group meetings being hosted at the space. Around 8pm, as the presentations and meetings were well underway, police were spotted congregating outside the rear of the building.

A worker-owner of P&L Printing and a named tenant on the building’s lease opened the main door of the space to observe what the officers were doing. As he opened the door and stuck his head out, a group of heavily armed officers who had taken up a tactical position behind a group of dumpsters behind the building ordered him to put his hands up and approach the officers. When he was within 10 feet of the officers, they ordered him to turn around, put his hands behind his back and walk backwards toward the officers. He was then searched, identified, and questioned.

DPD officers stated that they had received an emergency call that claimed that there were armed people inside the 27 Social Centre who were holding people hostage. After some explanation that this was indeed not the case, the officers lowered their shotgun and M4 rifle. The mood shifted, and the officers radioed their supervisor to give an all clear. They also radioed other officers to stand down. Apparently many more officers were positioned in areas around the Centre and had just been moments away from forcibly entering the space.

After 15 or so minutes of questioning, the supervising officer soon approached, and gave the worker-owner a clear choice: Either let the police into the building to prove to them there was no hostage situation, or watch as the police forcibly entered the building anyway. The choice, unfortunately, seemed clear, and the worker-owner brought 5 police officers into the building. They did not identify anyone else present, nor did they search any part of the building. After walking around for fewer than five minutes, the officers left, seemingly satisfied that there was indeed, no hostage situation.

It would be easy for us to claim this as a simple act of police generated repression. The unfortunate fact of the matter, however, is that this situation is more of an example of what can happen when snitch culture takes hold over communities. We know, for a fact, that there indeed was a call to the police. We do not know the exact details of the call, or even the specific person who made the call, but we do know that this happened. And it is this fact that makes the actions of Thursday night even more troubling.

The events set into motion by an obviously fictitious claim by whomever called the police could have ended much differently than they did. In the end, the actions of the person who called the police could have brought harm to many people. Instead, we were extremely fortunate that the situation was quickly de-escalated and that no one was injured, arrested, or detained, and that the officers left the building without much further incident. As many of us know, the officers of the Denver Police Department have never needed much of an excuse to violently attack, shoot, or murder people in our communities.

Thanks to all the many comrades from across the country (and the world!) who responded to various reports on social media about what was happening. The outpouring of support was amazing and intense, especially as most of it came even as the situation was unfolding.

Support the Denver Anarchist Black Cross because they support you!

Denver ABC’s financial support and solidarity programs threatened by past support for Occupy Denver!

Comrades, friends, allies, supporters, and all those who believe in a world without cages:

We know your inboxes, Facebook newsfeeds, blog comment sections, postal mailboxes, and most methods of communication in your life get filled with requests for funds and monetary support for a host of programs, organizations, and projects working toward social justice and liberation. We have been very fortunate over the last years to have much support from supporters and members of social movements who have somehow found it in their hearts to support us despite the deluge of requests they receive on a regular basis.

With this in mind, we apologize up front for this request. Please understand that we do not take your time, energy or resources lightly, and we only are asking for support because we must.

Due to our past support for Occupy Denver, where we raised over $16,000 for bail for over 50 arrestees and provided direct legal support for dozens more, we have dealt with ongoing debt to bail bonds-people for a number of cases in which defendants skipped court and had their bonds revoked.

We very recently were contacted by a local bonds-person and notified that we must pay them $2,000 in the next several weeks, or face civil litigation. A very active former member of Occupy Denver who previously failed to appear on another bond we had already posted directly with the city, had also failed to appear on another older case. We already forfeited $3,000 in a cash bond for the first failed appearance. We now are facing losing an additional $2,000 for this other failed appearance.

We release this statement not in the interests of attacking or shaming the person who did not appear, as we have no interests in aiding the state in ongoing judicial attacks against anyone. We refuse to name names in this situation, and we ask that our allies and those we have worked with also do not advance the state’s work for them. Instead, we describe the situation we are in for some level of transparency, and to illustrate the repercussions our collective is now facing for our support for Occupy Denver. We also wish to make it clear that we do not regret supporting Occupy Denver, nor do we condemn or in any way attack anyone else affiliated with Occupy Denver. We still stand in solidarity with the ongoing efforts of the Occupy Movement locally, and internationally.

All this said, we need your help, and we need it now.

Since 2009, Denver Anarchist Black Cross has done what we can to aid those who struggle for a better world but find themselves in need of support and solidarity. Whether through organizing support for political prisoners, offering financial aid to social movement members in Denver who find themselves in dire economic situations, helping support families and children of those active in our movements, or working to share resources with those organizing in a plethora of communities, we’ve dedicated ourselves to doing everything in our power to support those actively engaged in some of the most bitter struggles taking place across the United States and the world.

Since our inception, Denver ABC has raised over $50,000 that has gone directly to these initiatives. In 2012, we raised over $12,000 that included:

-$1,500 to bail funds for anarchists and other revolutionaries captured by the state across the country.

-$6500 to help transport, house, and feed over 75 participants from Canada, the United States and Mexico for our second annual North American Anarchist Black Cross Conference.

-$800 to local anarchists and other social movement members needing assistance paying medical bills, paying rent, buying groceries, and paying legal fees.

-$650 in solidarity donations to other revolutionary organizations and projects including Riseup.net, the Tierra Amarilla Youth Leadership Institute, and the Anarchist Black Cross Federation.

So far in 2013, we’ve been equally as busy, dispersing hundreds of dollars to commissary funds, bail funds, and solidarity donations for a wide variety of efforts.

This work is now threatened unless we can raise more funds immediately. Our warchest is dangerously low, and our ability to offer aid to folks under attack by the state is already starting to be hindered.

If you are interested in supporting our work, and ensuring that our past support for the efforts of Occupy Denver does not end the broader work our organization is engaged in, there are several ways to show us some love!